Golden Globes: Trent Reznor on 'Social Network': 'It's about creativity and consequences'
By Geoff Boucher for LATimes.com on January 17, 2011
"The Social Network" is a story of digital life, but it's a tale told with a somewhat classic approach. And that's the reason the film is continuing to resonate with moviegoers and with awards season voters, according to the Golden Globe winning composer of the film's soundtrack, Trent Reznor, who created the movie's sonic template with fellow winner Atticus Ross. "It's not a movie about Facebook," Reznor said. "It's about creativity and consequences. It's about people."
Cradling his new Golden Globe trophy, Reznor watched the revelers at Sony's rooftop party and seemed genuinely happy — not necessarily the natural state for the sonic auteur behind the harrowing music of Nine Inch Nails. "I feel spoiled by this whole thing," Reznor said of the music he created for "The Social Network." "It was so smooth really."
"There was hard work, but there really was never moments of desperation creatively where we were looking for ideas or approaches," Reznor added of his first major scoring project for feature film (he's next set to write music for "Social Network" director David Fincher's upcoming English-language adaptation of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo").
So did the underpinnings of "Social Network" have parallels to the song book of Nine Inch Nails, which married industrial weight and digital soundscapes but also fever-dream fragility? "Absolutely. The Nine Inch Nails music is an exploration of the machine versus the human and the juxtapositions that happen when they collide."
It was a rare night out for the rock star who has a three-week-old baby at home. "We have a baby that's becoming human," the first-time father said. "It's amazing stuff."